Escaping the Demon's Grasps

Not even attempting to wait until the Imps are fully awakened and conscious enough to attack him like they always do, Samael quickly went over to the edge of the island and jumped to the wall, gripping the edges tightly.

It was pure instinct, but Samael realized that he can actually dig his fingers into the wall.

Probably due to the increase in his physical power from absorbing the blessing. Although he can see that quite a bit of the section in the status window has increased, he doesn't know how much stronger he is now.

But now that he can actually dig his fingers into the wall, it seems he has gotten much stronger.

Samael looks up and fixed his eyes on the open portal right at the ceiling which is his only way out, it should be about a hundred meters high. Beads of sweat can be seen building all over Samael's body, he was climbing right above the sea of lava.

One false step then he would find his body destroyed completely by the sea of lava.

'No matter, I'm immortal right now. I just need to focus on getting out, falling down wouldn't be a problem as I can try it again' Samael thought with a nod to himself, he doesn't fear death as long as he's immortal.

As it turns out, his eyes widened when he realized that he was not immortal anymore.

[Upon finishing the first floor of the Ruin of the Underworld, the anti-host's immortality buff has been deactivated. If the anti-host dies right now, then the anti-host will actually die for good.]

For a fraction of a second there, Samael was stunned but he quickly regained his composure.

Realizing that he was not immortal anymore and he would actually die if he fall here, his body's survival instinct kicks in and he can feel the power coursing inside his veins. "Grghh!" Samael grunted before he started climbing like a lunatic.

With this surge of power from his instinct, he's climbing the wall very quickly.

But even though he's quite fast already, the Imps are already conscious and growling at him from below. Each of them bares their fangs and claws, and their eyes burn with one intention only, and that is to kill Samael.

Despite the growls and screeches, Samael didn't look back and kept on climbing.

Swoosh!

Swoosh!

Samael looks over his shoulders and saw a couple of fire lances shooting straight at him, this makes him grit his teeth with wide eyes before he swing his body and threw himself to the side to dodge these fire lances.

Boom!

Explosions resounded as the spot where he was before was obliterated by the fire lances.

It was a close call but he didn't realize that one of the fire lances is heading toward him as of this moment, and he only realized it when a painful sting drives into his lower back, forcing him to cough blood.

But even though it was painful, Samael's eyes glisten in hope, 'It's not as painful as before!'

Knowing that he can only take three fire lances at most before when he hasn't cleared the first-floor yet, he expected the fire lance to be able to go through his body and inflict a lot of damage to his body.

Samael forgot that he has gotten stronger, and the fire lance was not able to pierce him anymore.

The fire lance that hits him in the lower back only leaves a bruise, and this shows how much tougher his skin has become. Even though he's tougher right now, his eyes widened when he saw a dozen fire lances being shot by the horde of Imps.

Like a monkey, Samael quicken his climb in order to reach the portal before it was too late.

'Almost there! Just a little bit more!' Samael screamed inside his head when he saw the gate is already a couple more meters above him, but he would need to jump to the center and hold onto the gate as he was crawling on the wall right now.

With the escape route right in front of his eyes, his body becomes even more rigorous.

Just as he was about to climb a bit more before he makes the jump, three Imps managed to reach him from behind. "Arrghh!" Samael growled in agony, feeling the claws of the Imps ripping his skin apart as they clung to his body.

It was clear what they are trying to do, they are trying to make him fall into the sea of lava.

"Now's the game changed, weakling..."

"We're going to drag you back down, let's all enjoy the fire of hell!"

Samael heard the cackling and mocking remarks of the Imps that are clinging onto him, this spike his anger as his body started glowing with purple energy that reacted to his emotion and infuse him with more power.

As if his body is injected with adrenaline, he can feel his muscle tightens even more.

Not intending to lose once again to these Imps that have already left a traumatic memory inside his head, Samael tries to elbow and kicks the Imps off of him as he kept on making his way up.

He had never had to push himself this bloody hard until recently.

Life-and-death moments should happen rarely or would happen occasionally when he was fighting for the continuation of humanity when he became an adequate mage in the future, but he has already been exposed hundreds if not thousands of times in such a small time frame.

Many people would lose their minds in his position, but willpower is not something he lacks.

On top of that, there's still unfinished business that he has in life and he's not willing to die until he achieves it. Samael turned that into fuel to survive this moment, and that's the boosting factor that might save his life right now.

Despite managing to make some of the Imps let go of him, others would soon replace them.

Samael's muscles are contracting heavily right now as more than five Imps are clinging to him without the intention of letting go. But he has now reached high enough to make the jump.

"Go on, jump... let's see if you make it" an Imp commented with an evil chuckle.

Even though he's quite strong already as he manages to fight back the strength of five Imps together and also dodges the fire lances from the other Imps, he knows that he manages to do this because he has a good grip.

If he's in the air, he would have no chance of overpowering them as easily as right now.

Without any sign of helplessness in his eyes, Samael glared back at the Imp that is clinging to his neck and digging its claws into his skin, "Oh, yeah?! Let's see you try this then!" Samael shouted before his hand started glowing with purple energy.

Out of anger, Samael seized the Imp by the face and grip it tightly.

Supported by the purple energy that is cloaking his hand right now, he put more strength into his grip until the Imp's head got completely crushed. Not even batting an eye, Samael threw the Imp away savagely.

Following that, he braces himself and gathers more and more power into his body.

Although he doesn't completely know what this purple energy really is, he finds that it's very potent in making him stronger and he can somewhat control it. Samael can feel that a large proportion of this power is unable to be accessed by him now, but he can make do with what he can right now.

Gathering the most power that he can, he finally makes a jump at the gate bravely.

Many of the Imps that are clamping onto his body are flapping their wings furiously as they try to avert him from his jumping direction, and they are clearly doing a good job at it. But this is not the only thing he can do.

Once again Samael's hand was cloaked with purple energy, but it was a little bit different.

Earlier the purple energy spreads around his hand entirely like a glove, but now it was concentrating at the tip of his fingers and even creating taking a claw-like shape. "Infernal Swipe!" Samael chanted.

Immediately after he chanted that, he did a swiping motion at the Imps holding his legs.

The Imps were surprised when they saw four purple arcs shot from Samael's fingertips, these purple arcs were sharp as the sharpest blade and faster than the Magic Bullets spell that they saw Samael do earlier.

Growl!

Graah!

Upon being hit by the four purple arcs, the Imps were literally sliced into pieces.

Like a heated sword slicing through butter, the hard skin of the Imps provides no resistance at all under the raw power of the purple arcs. Just like that, three Imps holding onto his legs were destroyed.

Samael then used this chance to use the Dash Spell and kicks the air, aiming for the portal.

Although he almost missed the portal due to how much the Imps are trying to knock him off track earlier, the tip of his fingers managed to hold onto the portal albeit barely. If he did anything less, he would've fallen back into the Island and needed to start over again.

For that to really happen, then Samael would've been in very big trouble.

But thankfully he managed to reach the portal, he tries to lift his body up but more and more Imps are trying to pull him down as if their sole purpose is to drag him down. No matter the ways, biting, clawing, holding, they did everything to drag Samael down.

"Get off me! Go to hell yourself! Don't ask me to come with you!" Samael shouted in anger.

It was a very hard climb but little by little he started to reach the surface, he can already smell the fresh cold air of the night. Samael keeps on kicking the Imps, but he eventually managed to reach up.

Without even feeling relieved, he quickly crawls away from the portal fearing the Imp would still attack him.

Thankfully, the Imps were still at the mouth of the gate growling and trying to reach him. But it seems they are not able to get out of the portal, and this keeps on going until the portal eventually closes and swallows the Imps alongside it.

Upon realizing that it was over, Samael fell to the ground with a triumphant smile on his face.

"F-Finally... free at last!" Samael mutters to himself.

Just as he lie on the cold ground, a notification from the Anti-System appeared in his vision.

[Congratulation to the anti-host for managing to exit the Ruin of the Underworld despite the Imps' grasps! Does the anti-host wants to view the total rewards breakdown from the visit?]